Collegiate Soccer Player Tears ACL, Back on Field Months Later
January 16, 2025
Last fall, Kelly Griffin, a soccer player at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, was playing center defense in the Lions’ homecoming game when injury struck. The ball was kicked high into the air, and she and an opponent began to run toward it at the same time. Kelly’s body moved forward mightily, but her left foot remained solidly planted on the field.
“I heard a distinct popping sound, almost cartoonish,” says Kelly, now a senior in college majoring in biology and public health. “I felt my knee pop and immediately fell to the ground.”
Because she’d recently learned in anatomy class that a popping sound typically indicates a torn ligament, she figured she’d torn her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), which is a strong band of tissue in the knee that connects the thigh bone to the shin bone and helps stabilize the knee joint.
It turns out that in addition to tearing her ACL, she also tore her medial meniscus, a C-shaped cartilage in the knee that acts as a shock absorber and stabilizes the joint.
Tearing both the ACL and the medial meniscus is a serious injury because these structures are crucial for knee function and stability. Damage to both can lead to knee instability, pain and an increased risk of developing osteoarthritis if not properly addressed.
Recovery typically involves surgery followed by a structured rehabilitation program, which generally spans 6 to 12 months, depending on the severity of the injury.
Kelly limped off the field with the help of the team’s athletic trainer and left the game, which the Lions unfortunately lost. She called her mother, a physical therapist with Hackensack Meridian Health in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and began making plans to see doctors and start a prehab regimen, a process that helps people prepare for surgery.
Gearing up for Surgery
While she was at school, she worked with her athletic trainer to strengthen her leg before surgery, but when at home in Point Pleasant during school breaks, she worked with Jay Cleveland, a physical therapist at Hackensack Meridian Outpatient Rehabilitation.
There are ample benefits to doing prehab before surgery, according to Jay, including a faster recovery time, reduced hospital readmissions, improved psychological outcomes and fewer complications.
“In an injury like Kelly’s, the brain tends to shut off the muscle in the injured area making it weaker and subject to reinjury,” Jay says. “By doing prehab, you keep some of that muscle function, putting you in better shape for surgery.”
Kelly’s prehab primarily involved strengthening the quadricep muscle in her left leg, which included standing and balancing on one leg as well as squeezing and releasing the muscle to keep it active.
“Jay made me feel a lot more comfortable in a bad situation,” Kelly says. “I've known him since before the injury, so it was just like working with a friend.”
Rebuilding Strength With Reconstructive Surgery
On Nov. 17, 2023, during Kelly’s Thanksgiving break, Ocean University Medical Center orthopedic surgeon Bruce Stamos, M.D. performed a 90-minute reconstruction of Kelly’s ACL, using a graft from her quadricep muscle, and repaired her torn medial meniscus. Additionally, he performed a lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET) procedure, which involves transferring a portion of the iliotibial band to treat ACL-deficient knees.
“In collegiate-level athletes like Kelly, the risk of reinjury is high,” says Dr. Stamos, who says women are more likely than men to sustain this kind of injury. “So I usually have my patients wear a brace for their first season back. But our goal is to get them out of the brace and playing without anything.”
Back on the Field
Not long after the successful surgery, Kelly began going to rehab physical therapy four times a week. And eight months after, she was back to running and working out with her team, who selected Kelly as their team captain.
"We've learned that of the 70 percent of college athletes who return to playing after this surgery, only 43 percent feel like they're at the same level as they were before,” Dr. Stamos says. “It's a serious injury, and not everybody gets back to doing what Kelly did, which is pretty impressive.”
“The brace really gives me some mental security,” Kelly says. “When I practice without it, I’m a little more afraid. But in a game, all those thoughts go out of the window and it's just soccer.”
Which is exactly where her care team wants her focus to be—the game.
Next Steps & Resources
- Meet our source: Bruce Stamos, M.D.
- To make an appointment with an orthopedic sports medicine doctor near you, call 800-822-8905 or visit our website.
- To make an appointment at a physical therapy location near you, call 800-822-8905 or visit our website.
- Learn more about rehabilitation services at Hackensack Meridian Health.
